Natural flu protection for children: The Green Mama tries homeopathy

This year, I’m protecting myself and my children with a visit to a homeopath. Why? I’ve never really trusted flu vaccines: they aren’t safe for pregnant women and babies and that has always either excluded me or made me wonder about them. Plus, you don’t pass on antibodies to diseases you have been vaccinated against and while I am still nursing, I want to be able to pass on antibodies to my baby. Here is a recent article that homeopath Sonya McLeod from Little Mountain Homeopahty wrote on the flu, alternatives to vaccination, and her experience as a homeopath and mother. Sonya has written extensively on many of these issues on her blog, that coupled with her scientific publications, and her recent 2011 Consumer Choice Award win, encouraged me to visit her clinic.

Natural protection from the flu

I remember two years ago at this time, when swine flu was the thing everyone feared. This despite the fact that swine flu killed far less people than regular influenza. The regular flu kills approx. 250,000 – 500,000 people each year worldwide. Swine flu killed a tiny fraction of that number.

Unlike many other parents, I am not worried at all if my kids are exposed to the regular flu, swine flu, or the next flu “epidemic” on the horizon. This is because I have had years of formal training in classical homeopathy, a natural healing art that has been used successfully for the treatment of all types of flu for more than 200 years.

My kids will not be getting a flu shot this year. Thanks to long-term constitutional homeopathic treatment, my kids have a strong immunity. So I don’t even have to worry about protecting them against the flu: most people who die from the flu have compromised immune systems. But if for some reason I were worried about my kids getting the flu, I would give them the homeopathic remedy influenzinum. Influenzinum is made from flu viruses and then prepared in a homeopathic manner so as to render it safe and nontoxic. It has been used for at least the past 150 years as a natural flu preventative. In 1998, the Société Franí§aise d’Homéopathie conducted a survey of 23 homeopathic doctors and 453 patients concerning their use of influenzinum as a flu preventative over a 10-year period. Results of the survey were remarkable. In approximately 90 percent of the cases, no instances of the flu occurred when influenzinum was used.

My children are young, and their immune systems are still developing, so there is a chance that they will end up getting the flu this year. If they do, I will be treating them confidently with homeopathy, which was used effectively to treat one of the deadliest strains of flu in history, the 1918 Spanish flu. During the Spanish flu, Americans who were treated with traditional medicine had a mortality rate of 28.2 percent, while those who were treated with homeopathic medicines only had a mortality rate of 1.05 percent, according to a report by the American Homeopathic Institute in 1921.

There are many possible remedies for the flu, depending upon the particular symptoms that the infected person is experiencing. During the Spanish flu, homeopathic gelsemium was the most frequently used remedy. In general, gelsemium is thought of as the number-one remedy for the flu. Homeopathic bryonia and Eupatorium perfoliatum are also very frequently used remedies.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about homeopathy is that it is often difficult to decide between one homeopathic remedy and another. If you are not sure which remedy to use for the flu, a sure bet is Oscillococcinum. Oscillococcinum is a homeopathic remedy invented in 1925, made from the liver and heart of a Barbary duck. There have been two large double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials measuring the efficacy of Oscillococcinum for the flu. The results of the first trial were published in 1989 in Britain’s Journal of Pharmacology, and the results of the second trial were published in 1998 in the Homeopathic Journal. The studies showed that Oscillococcinum reduces the duration of the flu, speeds recovery, and reduces flu symptoms such as pain, fever, and backache.

Homeopathy is a safe medicine for the flu, with no side effects; the same cannot be said for traditional flu treatments.

Sonya McLeod is a Vancouver homeopath. Much of this article originally appeared in the Georgia Straight and is republished here with permission from the author. Introduction by Manda Aufochs Gillespie, The Green Mama.

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